“I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: preach the word [as an official messenger]; be ready when the time is right and even when it is not [keep your sense of urgency, whether the opportunity seems favorable or unfavorable, whether convenient or inconvenient, whether welcome or unwelcome]; correct [those who err in doctrine or behavior], warn [those who sin], exhort and encourage [those who are growing toward spiritual maturity], with inexhaustible patience and [faithful] teaching. For the time will come when people will not tolerate sound doctrine and accurate instruction [that challenges them with God’s truth]; but wanting to have their ears tickled [with something pleasing], they will accumulate for themselves [many] teachers [one after another, chosen] to satisfy their own desires and to support the errors they hold,” 2 Timothy 4:1-3 AMP
Paul lays a foundation of Christ the Judge for Timothy – and us – to use as our life philosophy. All Scripture, we were told previous to this verse (2 Timothy 3:16), is God-breathed and profitable for correction, instruction, reproof…so that the Christian becomes wise. To see Scripture and its relation to us in life we must see it as life’s flashlight. It, God’s truth, shines light upon the world’s events. Our every circumstance, if thought about outside of Scripture, is reduced to a form of brute factuality in which we’re positioned at the center. The danger of unsound doctrine is exactly this: it removes God from the center of one’s attention and replaces Him with self. All non-Christian philosophy and religion seeks to elevate man and minimize struggle/suffering. On one end of Satan’s crafty schemes is hedonism and the other is asceticism. The drunken frat boy and the disciplined Buddhist are examples of the hedonist and the ascetic. Both place self at the center…the goal is the ultimate felicity of the self in a lonely universe of ultimate meaninglessness.
Christ as Judge means that all things are His and can only be considered, therefore, in light of His word/law. Christ the Judge means that God is the absolute Monarch; He is the supreme One. Many mistakes are avoided by praying over this beautiful paradox: Christ for all things, all things for Christ. He is sovereign and He is good. This means that our highest good in life isn’t our personal happiness, which is circumstantial joy. Rather, it’s blessedness and that’s to know and love and submit to Him.
The will of Christ, communicated in Scripture, understood in sound, non-contradictory doctrine, is to be obeyed. All the universe exists for the glory of God, not me and you. Likewise, all the problems and conflicts of life exist because of sin.
Christ answers hedonism and Buddhism, and all the countless variances in between, with His crucifixion and resurrection. Only Christ, the God-man who suffered so that we might come to Him, reconciles the particulars of life. And the fact that He is going to judge all the earth in perfect wisdom someday is the great leveler of all things. There isn’t going to be any injustice on that Day. No more debates and hot arguments. Lies will be shut down by Truth; coverups will be exposed. Every knee will bow and every tongue will confess to the great fact of facts that Christ is Lord.
To that end, how then should we see the work of evangelism? How should we approach our life’s work and our everyday?
First, if we know that Christ is the Judge then we must wrap our every thought and deed around the reality of His saving grace. All of life is, therefore, a life of faith.
Second, this life of faith is the life of righteousness. We aren’t saved to continue in sin but to the new life of the Spirit where all is love and gratitude. We’re debtors not to anyone or anything but to Christ who saved us (Romans 8:12), is saving us, and will save us. To say this is to relate the reality of our justification, sanctification, and eventual glorification. This life of sanctification and ultimate glory is the reality of having our lives “hidden” in Him (Colossians 3:3).
Third, our debt is to love. Christ as Judge means that we’re to obey His commandments. And what are they? To love the Father and to love our neighbor as ourselves. And what does this love look like? What does it mean in reality…on the ground, so to speak?
It means, in relation to God, that our righteousness is imputed to us, not our own. Self-righteous Christianity is a contradiction in terms. The earth orbits the sun and we revolve around Him. A Christian is saved by faith alone and all of their life afterwards is a progressive reordering of their personal, social, and professional life in accordance with the new principle of faith. Whatever isn’t of faith is, therefore, sin (Romans 14:23); a Christian may sin, maybe even egregiously but it’s always in contradiction to the principle of faith alive within them. Just as the unsaved can and do a good many “righteous” things contrary to their nature of rebellion, Christians often, sadly, act contrary to their new life in the Spirit.
This life of faith rejoices in the Lord always and is determined in all things to bring Him praise. Furthermore, a saved man or woman seeks to do all things in thanks to Him. The principle of the sinner is truth suppression and unthankfulness (Romans 1:18-21). Rebels push God from their minds and refuse to give Him thanks. The Christian does the opposite (Proverbs 3:5-6).
In relation to others, in order to love them, we’ll be forgiving. Cats don’t bark, dogs don’t meow, and Christians don’t fault-find, hold grudges, nor condemn anyone. Like a dry beach is a Christian who doesn’t hate the sin but love the sinner. Donald Grey Barnhouse was asked how a Christian is to do this. He replied that we already do it for ourselves. We hate our sin, don’t we, but we love ourselves. Do the same, Barnhouse said, for others.
This isn’t a suggestion or merely a good idea such as taking a faster route to work. It’s not a new recipe. It’s the reality of Christian life.
Francis Schaefer said that love is giving and receiving forgiveness. Here’s the thing: since we’re all sinners that means we’re all guilty of, James Boice said, of sinning against others. Sin isn’t in a vacuum. To take Christian living seriously – and we should/must because Christ is the savior and judge – is to take forgiveness seriously. Luke 11:4 doesn’t mean that we’re only to forgive others when they say they’re sorry. Schaefer wrote:
“Rather, we’re called upon to have a forgiving spirit without the other man having made the first step. We may still say that he is wrong, but in the midst of saying he is wrong, we must be forgiving…
“Such a forgiving spirit registers an attitude of love toward others. But, even though one can call this an attitude, true forgiveness is observable. Believe me, you can look on a man’s face and know where he is as far as forgiveness is concerned. And the world is called on to look upon us and see whether we have love across the groups, across the party lines. Do they observe that we say, ‘I’m sorry,” and do they observe a forgiving heart? Our love will not be perfect, but it must be substantial enough for the world to observe it.”
There are certain implications we should keep fresh in our minds and chief amongst them is that if all men are sinners that means I am too. This means, by rational necessity, that others will sin against me and I will do likewise. A swimmer gets wet. A boxer punches and is punched. A runner runs. A sinner sins. But atop that, Christians forgive because they have been forgiven; they love as they’re loved. To love as Christ has loved us is to cancel the record of wrongs. Any Christian who keeps a long account, who keeps the ledger going, dots the i’s and crosses the t’s of wrongs against them, must consider our Lord’s words:
“For if you forgive others their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you, but if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.” Matthew 6:14–15 ESV
This verse means exactly what it says. No true Christian can be unforgiving. It’s that contradiction of terms again.
We will hurt and be hurt; we will trespass and be trespassed against.
But we’re keeping short accounts of our sins with the Lord, living in daily repentance. To go to Him for forgiveness for some sin or another is to ask for our feet to be washed by Him, isn’t it (John 13)? How then can we not wash the filthy paws of the brother who trespasses against us? Yes, filthy. Are we angry with a brother? Have they wronged us? We forgive them already due to the inescapable logic of Christ and His coming Kingdom. Do you think the Judge will not correct wrongs – ours and theirs? Is our theology so shallow that we think our small dramas are greater than the King’s, that our hurts and disappointments outweigh His?
Have you been blindfolded and struck and mocked?
Have you been rejected by those you gave yourselves to and to whom you actually gave life itself?
Do we dare carry grudges while in the resplendent glow of unmerited grace?
Do we arrive at the pleasant shores of salvation by faith alone and yet refuse to walk those glorious and sandy beaches, preferring instead a dark castle of self-pity built by the fury of a thankless heart? Let that ocean of God’s love roll in and take all that sand out to sea, to be spoken of never more.
Could a man given a boundless bank account by a rich relative, totaling billions and billions of dollars, lose his mind because someone stole a penny of that limitless fortune? Could such a man, with such an undeserved bounty he could never outspend, said to understand the reality of it if he lost his mind over a petty theft? Or would he live a life of thankfulness, abounding in confidence, and extending dollar after unearned dollar to those in debt? Such is the logic of grace and there can be no other.
But look at our world. See all the acrimony born from sin? What are our political movements but schemes of vengeance? Where’s the forgiveness? All this talk about racism and power but nothing about mercy or forgiveness. Unrepentant sin makes us expert accountants of the sins of others. Oh, the tragedy of that because Christ the Judge will not have a man stand in His perfect presence who is unforgiving. Think this is strong? Well, it’s not strong enough. Consider our Lord’s words:
“Then Peter came up and said to him, “Lord, how often will my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? As many as seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you seven times, but seventy-seven times. “Therefore the kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who wished to settle accounts with his servants. When he began to settle, one was brought to him who owed him ten thousand talents. And since he could not pay, his master ordered him to be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and payment to be made. So the servantfell on his knees, imploring him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you everything.’ And out of pity for him, the master of that servant released him and forgave him the debt. But when that same servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred denarii, and seizing him, he began to choke him, saying, ‘Pay what you owe.’ So his fellow servant fell down and pleaded with him, ‘Have patience with me, and I will pay you.’ He refused and went and put him in prison until he should pay the debt. When his fellow servants saw what had taken place, they were greatly distressed, and they went and reported to their master all that had taken place. Then his master summoned him and said to him, ‘You wicked servant! I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. And should not you have had mercy on your fellow servant, as I had mercy on you?’ And in anger his master delivered him to the jailers,until he should pay all his debt. So also my heavenly Father will do to every one of you, if you do not forgive your brother from your heart.”” Matthew 18:21–35 ESV
The knowledge of Christ the Savior is inextricably linked to Christ the Judge and it’s precisely this that brings us to understand the SPIRIT in which we are to rebuke, correct, and instruct. Sound doctrine is Christ the Savior and Christ the Judge. Sound doctrine is exactly that which points to the person and work of Jesus Christ and all that that means. Unsound doctrine, in whatever variance, always, always, always, plays low God’s righteousness and sovereignty and elevates self. Man the sinner will, if he has the power, play the tyrant; if he can’t, he’ll play the victim. What he won’t do is repent because he sees the world and/or others as the problem, not his own sin.
John Perkins, a black man, saw man’s sin while he was being beaten by a white mob. They put him in the hospital. He later wrote:
“The Spirit of God worked on me as I lay in that bed. An image formed in my mind – the image of a cross, of Christ on the cross. This Jesus knew what I had suffered. He understood. He cared. Because He had gone through it all Himself. He too was arrested and falsely accused. He too had an unjust trial. He too was beaten. Then he was nailed to a cross and killed like a common criminal. But when he looked at the mob who had crucified him, he didn’t hate them; he loved them. And he prayed, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do (Luke 23:24).’
“His enemies hated, but He forgave. God wouldn’t let me escape that. He showed me that however unjustly I’d been treated, in my bitterness and hatred I was just as sinful as those who had beaten me. And I needed forgiveness for my bitterness.
“I read Matthew 6:14-15 again and again in that bed…To receive God’s forgiveness I was going to have to forgive those who had hurt me. As I prayed, the faces of those policemen passed before me one by one, and I forgave each one. Faces from other white people from the past came before me, and I forgave them. I cold sense that God was working a deeper inner healing in me that went far back beyond February 7, 1970. It went clear back to my earliest memories of childhood. God was healing all those wounds that had kept me from loving whites. How sweet God’s forgiveness and healing was.” Perkins, “With Justice for All”
We rebuke, exhort, correct and train…for Christ, in Christ, and to Christ. Mercy and grace and love are poured into our hearts by Him. How then can a vessel filled with the greatest wine pour a cup of the fetid poison of bitterness?
Sound doctrine is Christ and His work and we are to be that work. The sign of that will be our love and the sign of that love is our ability to say we’re sorry, not only to God, but to others, and to forgive as we’ve been forgiven.
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